PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Wada, Kaori"

Browsing by Author "Wada, Kaori"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 23

Open Access
‘All other things being equal’: Conducting cross-cultural research in counselling psychology
(2019-10) Suzuki, Hanako; Wada, Kaori
With multicultural competence, social justice, and methodical diversity which lie at the core of counselling psychology identity, Canadian counselling psychology is well-positioned to conduct cross-cultural research in a non-colonial, socially just manner. In this paper, we will use my own cross-cultural grief research as a means to discuss the challenges and issues that researchers need to navigate in the research process. This includes the assumption of ceteris paribus––all things being equal––that underlies cross-cultural quantitative research. Overall, we argue for critical cross-cultural research that fits with the ethos of Canadian counselling psychology: one that reveals Eurocentric, ethnocentric, and individualistic assumptions in psychology knowledge.
Open Access
An Exploration of Canadian Multicultural and Social Justice Training: Centring the Voices of Minoritized Students
(2020-10-29) Cohen, Julie A.; Kassan, Anusha; Goopy, Suzanne; Wada, Kaori
The Canadian discipline of counselling psychology has taken leadership in inciting change in the broader field of professional psychology—striving to adopt innovative multicultural (MC) and social justice (SJ) orientations and training. At the same time, most Canadian research that examines MC and SJ training relies on the experiences of participants who hold multiple dominant identities and social locations. While more recent MC and SJ scholarship has included an exploration of culture, there is still limited focus on non-dominant cultural influences outside of race and ethnicity. Hence, there is a lack of research that investigates MC and SJ training using a culturally inclusive perspective—one that recognizes the intersectionality and multiplicity of identities. This dissertation explores the perspectives of MC and SJ training from the standpoints of culturally non-dominant students, using an inclusive lens (e.g., those identities that are minoritized by dominant discourses and structures). This body of work offers a path to refocus Canadian counselling psychology towards culturally responsive and socially just training and research practices. Consisting of three linked manuscripts, which employ a feminist lens as a guiding framework, this research makes several contributions to research and practice. First, in Manuscript I, I explore current ways in which MC and SJ training are understood and taken up by counselling psychology graduate students. Second, in Manuscript II, I examine how a pluralistic approach that adopts a feminist standpoint theory epistemology to guide an interpretative phenomenological analysis method can provide a meaningful framework to conduct research with minoritized communities, offering suggestions for working through philosophical and methodological considerations that arise from this integration. Lastly, in Manuscript III, I explore the standpoints of eight culturally non-dominant counselling psychology doctoral students with respect to MC and SJ training in Canada to examine the following research question: How do counselling psychology doctoral students who self-identify with culturally non-dominant identities perceive their experiences of MC and SJ training? This body of work highlights unique aspects of culturally non-dominant students’ experiences, provides meaningful recommendations to advance MC and SJ training, and informs future pedagogical and methodological approaches in the Canadian field of counselling psychology.
Open Access
Authenticating and Legitimizing Transgender Identities Online: A Discourse Analysis
(2019-08-26) West, Alyssa Megan Marie; Strong, Tom; Wada, Kaori; Spring, Erin; Callaghan, Tonya D.
The number of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) individuals who are presenting for counselling is increasing, and yet counsellors feel unprepared and lack confidence working with gender-variant people, which has resulted in negative therapeutic experiences. Consistent with social-justice practice, knowledge of how clients understand themselves is necessary to ensure the outcomes of counselling (Arthur & Collins, 2010a). A key resource TGNC individuals are using to engage in identity exploration are online communities. In this research I applied Potter and Wetherell’s (1987) approach to discourse analysis to explore the talk and text of three such online communities. I identified that the participants made sense of their identity using three discourses: (a) felt sense, (b) authenticity, and (c) legitimacy. I discuss these findings within the context of the current social climate and existing literature regarding TGNC individual’s identity development. I offer suggestions for infusing this insight into trans-affirmative counselling practice(s) and discuss implications for future research.
Open Access
Conceptualization of Land Within Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy (IFOT)
(2024-08-30) Maisey, Douglas Ryan; Wada, Kaori; Villebrun, Gwendolyn; Fellner, Karlee; Christian, Dorothy
Indigenous People are often disproportionately represented in terms of the need for mental health support. However, Euro-Western counselling approaches often further oppress and marginalize Indigenous Peoples as these wellness interventions are typically culturally irrelevant which links to the mistrust of the mental health system. As just one example, many of these treatments minimize the importance and use of Land in the healing journey. Indigenous Peoples throughout Turtle Island have a deep-rooted connection to Land as a teacher, relative, healer, and spirit. The field of counselling psychology has yet to integrate Indigenous ways of knowing and Land in counselling settings to decolonize and reconcile counselling approaches. Indigenous Focusing-oriented therapy (IFOT) is a therapy approach grounded in Land and Indigenous philosophy to address complex personal, vicarious, and intergenerational trauma. Utilizing a relational methodology and Indigenous research methods of conversation, witnessing, and reflexive journaling, this study sought to understand the conceptualization of Land within IFOT. Conversations with five IFOT knowledge holders and engaging in IFOT training programs allowed Land to be conceptualized and understood within an IFOT framework. By conceptualizing Land within IFOT and the therapeutic space, Land can be noticed and utilized to heal intergenerational trauma and cultural genocide. With Land, clients can address the attempted genocide and complex trauma that show up in their present to heal and find harmony for themselves and all those they are in relation with. This research adds to the growing bodies of IFOT literature and presents implications for healing practices, research within education, counselling psychology, and related fields.
Open Access
Consensus on Campus? Tension and Multiplicity in Student Mental Health
(2019-12) Ross, Karen H.; Strong, Tom; Burwell, Catherine; Wada, Kaori; Barker, Susan; Morrow, Marina
In Canada (as elsewhere), postsecondary student mental health is increasingly positioned as an urgent social problem, even a crisis. Scholarly, professional, and popular publications detail the escalating prevalence, complexity, and costliness of student mental health problems; myriad campus initiatives and services have arisen to enhance, maintain, or restore mental health. Despite the considerable power of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic discourses, heterogeneous meanings of mental health persist—often implicit in the logics of varying campus activities and messages. At sites where incommensurable logics intersect, tensions may arise that must be actively navigated or managed, whether by institutions or by students themselves. In this dissertation, I investigate tensions of postsecondary student mental health using situational analysis (SA), an interpretive qualitative method that seeks to make visible relations of difference, axes of discursive variation, and sites of silence in a multiply co-constituted material-discursive situation of interest. I apply SA to scholarly mental health literature, texts produced by campus stakeholders, and interviews with university students who self-identify as having experienced mental health problems, mapping heterogeneous constructions of mental health and lingering analytically in sites of potential tension. Students’ meaning-making around mental health is rich, diverse, complex, and situated, and may not fit easily into prevailing institutional logics of efficiency, rationalization, and risk management. My aim with this study was to generatively complicate the student mental health conversation, working against premature discursive closure. I offer an unconventional account of student mental health, one in which meanings remain unsettled, contested, and political. Such analysis is difficult to distil into best practices, but supports a posture of flexible, pluralistic, and situated responding to the remarkably diverse concerns that have come to be classified as “mental health problems.”
Open Access
Decolonizing the Conceptualization of Trauma: An Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Approach
(2021-09-24) Tipple, Stephanie Danielle; Fellner, Karlee; Wada, Kaori; Murry, Adam; Wada, Kaori; Fellner, Karlee; Vandenborn, Elisa
Counselling psychology prides itself on social justice and diversity in treatment modalities. Yet, many Indigenous clients continue to receive culturally irrelevant treatment, as evidenced by high dropout rates and mistrust of the health care system. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) released 94 calls to action directly addressing the unlawful treatment of Indigenous Peoples throughout Canada. In response to the TRC and with the goal of decolonization, reconciliation, and reclamation, a jointly-struck task force was created on behalf of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Psychology Foundation of Canada. The task force highlighted the need for ethical Indigenous research and culturally relevant approaches to psychological treatment for Indigenous Peoples; hence, this research is a direct response to both documents. Utilizing a relational methodology and Indigenous research methods of conversation, witnessing, and reflexive journaling, this study sought to understand the conceptualization of trauma within Indigenous Focusing-oriented therapy (IFOT). Grounded in land and an Indigenous ontology, IFOT is a holistic, decolonizing approach to health and wellbeing. Resulting from the wisdoms shared by four knowledge holders versed in the teachings of IFOT, the conceptualization of trauma is understood through the Trauma Wisdom Tree and Medicine Roots. Indigenous Peoples hold centuries of wisdoms having survived through intergenerational trauma and cultural genocide. Thus, through connection with our Medicine Roots, clients can restore healing, balance, and harmony. Moreover, reflecting on the concept of survivance, intergenerational trauma and resistance to colonialism is honoured. In addressing decolonization, cultural appropriation, and the issue of “evidence”, these findings present implications for practice, research, and social justice within education, counselling psychology, and related fields.
Open Access
Dialectics of Eco-anxiety: Encountering Uncertainty and Negotiating (Im)possible Futures
(2022-08-18) Guenette, Jeannine; Zhao, Xu; Wada, Kaori; Clark, Douglas
Using a constructivist grounded theory method and taking a critical theory approach, this study aims to understand how people reporting eco-anxiety grapple with uncertainty about individual and collective futures in the context of the climate emergency. Data is drawn from public discussions about climate change in two online community forums hosted by the website Reddit. Findings are presented as dialectics representative of the multiple tensions and contradictions that frame and inform how people (primarily in the Global North) are currently making sense of the threat of climate change. These dialectics delineate several discursive dimensions of eco-anxiety and the meaning-making processes that people engage in to manage various forms of distress and how they (re)construct visions of viable futures. This project will contribute to sociological and psychological literature on the nature of eco-anxiety and the process of coping with uncertainty to enhance understandings of the impact of eco-anxiety on individual and collective well-being. In closing with a discussion of the implications for therapeutic practice, four pathways are suggested for stoking the burgeoning transformative process theorized here to be implicit in eco-anxiety.
Open Access
Exploring the Lived Experiences of Spousal Bereavement and Widowhood among Older Chinese Immigrants in Calgary
(2019-02-26) Wang, Qianyun; Walsh, Christine Ann; Tong, Hongmei; Tam, Dora; Wada, Kaori
Spousal bereavement poses considerable challenges to adults in late life. Some populations, such as older immigrants, may experience heightened negative outcomes as a consequence of spousal bereavement, due to migratory stress and marginalization. Spousal bereavement is also culturally-embedded as it is related to cultural beliefs and attitudes concerning death and family relationships. However, studies on spousal bereavement or widowhood among older immigrant groups are limited. This study aims to fill the gap by exploring, via a phenomenological approach, the lived experiences of widowed older Chinese immigrants in Calgary. This study addressed two main research questions: 1) What are the lived experiences of widowed Chinese older immigrants in coping with their spousal bereavement? and 2) What supports do widowed older Chinese immigrants draw from to cope with their bereavement and to adjust to widowhood? Findings were categorized into four levels, individual, family, community and society. It was found that grief was long-lasting among participants. They took grief privately, with using rituals and faith. Although family and ethno-cultural communities played an important role in providing supports to participants during their widowhood, both were unable to directly help them cope with the spousal loss. Most participants did not access social services for bereavement support. Participants’ lived experience of widowhood were also embedded with multi-dimensional identities: age, gender, immigration, and ethnicity. Immigration background and ethno-cultural factors were recognized in relation to their significant impact on participants’ late-life widowhood. Limitations of this study, implications for further research and social work practice and policy-making were included.
Open Access
Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy from the Client Perspective
(2023-11-29) Lupton, Melissa Erin; Fellner, Karlee Dawn; Wada, Kaori; Kassan, Anusha
While Indigenous people account for only 5% of the general population of Canada, they are greatly overrepresented in our social service systems. Within children services, 69% of children are Indigenous (Children Services, 2020). In 2020, out of all incarcerated women, 50% were Indigenous (Government of Canada [GOC], 2022, June 30). The rate of suicide in Indigenous youth is 5-11 times higher than non-Indigenous youth (Canadian Federation of Medical Students, 2017), and Indigenous folks are six times more likely than non-Indigenous people to be victims of homicide (Statistics Canada, 2022, July 19). There is a clear need for change in these systems. Counselling psychology is dominated by Euro Western approaches that are not accessed by Indigenous people for a number of reasons including that these approaches have also been found, in many cases, to be ineffective within the Indigenous population. Psychology’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (CPA & PFC, 2018) encourages psychologists to familiarize themselves with Indigenous approaches to therapy to better serve this population. One therapeutic approach, named specifically in this response, is Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy (IFOT). As there is an almost non-existent research base for psychologists to become familiar with IFOT, the aim of this research is to fill this gap in the literature. The current research focused specifically on the client perspective of IFOT. The question was: How do clients experience Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy? Utilizing an Indigenous research paradigm, this question was explored through an Indigenous Storywork (ISW) methodology. Storytellers were IFOT practitioners who had experience as clients through their training. Storytellers shared their experience of IFOT from the client perspective. The researcher made meaning of the stories gathered and through this process, themes emerged. An overarching theme of IFOT is Effective surrounded the themes: IFOT as ceremony, a decolonized approach, IFOT Felt Sense, Medicines, Land, and All My Relations. These themes are understood in an interconnected, non-linear framework wherein they are all related and influence each other. This framework offers a preliminary understanding of the benefits of IFOT as well as recommendations for clinicians aiming toward culturally safe and relevant practice with Indigenous peoples.
Open Access
Influence of Social Support and Work Meaning on Mental Health in Adults Experiencing Mental Illness
(2020-01) Waldmann, Kristina; Domene, José; Wada, Kaori; Szeto, Andrew
Mental illness is a growing public health concern that has been exasperated by the covid-19 pandemic (OECD, 2021). Keyes’ two continua model of mental health conceptualizes the relationship between mental health and mental illness as two separate continuums that intersect with one another. While the two terms are related, they are not analogous and it is possible for someone experiencing mental illness to experience good mental health. Grounded in the two continua model of mental health, the current study posited perceived social support and meaningful work would account for a significant amount of variance in the mental health of those living with mental illness. Participants included 125 working adults (18 – 56 years) who were experiencing mental illness at the time of the study. Participants completed a series of self-report surveys measuring meaningful work, social support and mental health. After controlling for age, gender, and relationship status, hierarchical multiple regressions revealed social support and meaningful work each accounted for a significant amount of unique variance to mental health in adults. These results highlight the importance of incorporating meaningful work and social support into counselling psychology practice, specifically with clients experiencing mental illness, as a potential way to improve mental health.
Open Access
A Narrative Inquiry into the Professional Identity Shifts of Skilled Immigrants
(2021-05-11) Marulanda, David; Wada, Kaori; Domene, Jose; El-Lahib, Yahya
The challenges and barriers that skilled immigrants face in Canada lead many of them to forego pursuing employment in their fields of expertise. This unexpected disruption in their professional lives has been known to have a profound effect on their sense of self that has been coined a loss of professional identity. This loss has been associated with negative impacts to their well-being, including feelings of frustration, hopelessness, depression, and a strong sense of betrayal by the Canadian government. The bulk of the research on this population has focused on understanding the barriers that thwart their labour market integration. Comparatively, few studies have explored how skilled immigrants negotiate this loss and reconstitute their professional sense of self. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the professional identity shifts of skilled immigrants. Using narrative inquiry, I documented the stories of seven skilled immigrants about their job search experiences and their impact on their view of themselves as professionals. In addition, I borrowed elements from critical discourse analysis to explore the role that discourses about skilled immigrants in Canada played in how participants made sense of their job search experiences. Data collection involved a 90-minute semi-structured interview with each participant. The themes that emerged from each interview were organized into a short narrative of each participant’s career experiences pre and post migration. Across-case analysis of these narratives revealed common threads of prosperous careers in their home countries; expectations of professional success in Canada; a rupture in their professional lives; the rekindling of their professional selves; and resisting hopelessness in the face of great difficulties. Reflecting about these common threads led me to conclude that participants’ stories communicated a sense of perseverance and hope, but their accounts were mired with tensions tied to the unhelpful influence of discourses about skilled immigrants on their attempts at professional integration. In an effort to avoid relinquishing their careers, participants resisted being construed as deficient and attempted to negotiate the requirement of Canadian experience. From these broader themes I drew implications for employment counsellors, the immigrant-service sector, and investigators whose research focuses on this population.
Open Access
Perceptions of Ideal Grief and Continuing Bonds: Undergraduate Student Survey in a Medicalizing Context
(2018-09-07) Buote, Lauren C.; Wada, Kaori; Strong, Tom; Zhao, Xu
In response to the current movement towards medicalization of grief and the DSM’s call for research on the proposed diagnosis Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD), this study examined to what extent people perceive PCBD criteria as in fact pathological. The study also measured the association between perceptions of grief and continuing bonds, and the influence of several cultural factors on these perceptions. To access underlying cultural influences, 385 undergraduate students responded to grief and continuing bonds questionnaires as “an ideally emotionally and psychologically healthy person of your own gender in your culture” would respond 12 months after the death of a loved one. Contrary to the DSM’s conceptualization of PCBD’s criteria as pathological, results suggested students perceive PCBD criteria and continuing bonds as normal and in fact healthy and highlighted a variety of factors that influence grief and continuing bonds perceptions. Findings of this study provide insight into the potential impacts of medicalizing grief as a disorder.
Embargo
Physically distanced yet digitally connected: A scoping review and thematic analysis on grief, social media, and COVID-19
(2023-09-14) Sohal, Pooja R.; Wada, Kaori; Maroney, Meredith; Boynton, Heather
Thanatechnology is a budding field that explores the nexus of technology within grieving rituals and experiences. Previous research indicates that social media has become part of our everyday communication, and has expanded to our grieving rituals. However, the pandemic acted as a catalyst to adapt the tools we had to cope with loss. This thesis comprised two studies to understand grief communication in digital spaces. In the first study, we conducted a scoping review to grasp what has already been reported on grieving on social media. We extracted 47 peer-reviewed articles based on our inclusion criteria. We were able to identify different domains of information including platform characteristics, the types of users, the transformation of the griever’s relationship to the deceased, community interactions, and functionalities of social media connection. Grieving online can provide a connection to other grievers and maintain a connection with loved ones. The scoping review created a foundation of knowledge in digital grieving prior to the pandemic. We then conducted a second study, a reflexive thematic analysis using naturally occurring data to understand the griever’s experiences during the pandemic. Five discussion threads were extracted from a grieving community on Reddit who lost someone because of the COVID-19 virus. We identified that users discussed the COVID-19 virus as an anthropomorphized “Evil Monster” that took away their loved ones. Other themes identified included unfairness from pandemic loss and restrictions, encountering losses despite extensive safety precautions, understanding of unique pain from COVID-19 loss, sharing the grieving experience online, and finding compassion with other members. This research provides a historic snapshot of the grief experience during the pandemic as our communication shifted. The results of this study are timely in relation to the introduction of artificial intelligence and allude to future directions for thanatechnology studies. Lastly, the ethical responsibility of using social media for data collection is addressed.
Open Access
School Leadership for Transgender Youth: A Case Study
(2019-09) Barbor, B. Donald; Friesen, Sharon; Callaghan, Tonya D.; Simmons, Marlon; Wada, Kaori; Airton, Lee
The purpose of this case study is to determine which school leadership practices positively impact transgender youth. Understanding the lived experience of an identified marginalized, vulnerable group in school, who have been impacted by school administrators’ actions and inactions, acts as a window into the relationship between the practice of school leadership and its impact upon a targeted marginalized group in public schools: the transgender student community. The study used qualitative case-study methodology and involved six participants in semi-structured interviews. The study participants attended one large urban high school and identified as members of the transgender community. The findings of this inquiry revealed that the transgender student community faces consistent and pervasive bullying, harassment and violence as aspects of their school experiences. In this study, all student participants described their experiences with current principal leadership practice as running along the continuum of offering minimal support and influence on behalf of the transgender student community to behaviours that contributed to further harm. Study participants indicated that their voices were rarely accessed to inform policy development in efforts to provide safety and support for the transgender student community. School experiences shared by study participants lead to an increased in anxiety and depression, contributed to their absenteeism from school and other social activity, and impacted their academic success in school. The study findings support that principal leaders’ professional learning must incorporate the development of the knowledge and attitudes reflective of a social justice perspective that allows them to understand and support all students, especially those most marginalized and vulnerable.
Open Access
Selected Proceedings From The Canadian Counselling Psychology Conference 2018
(2019-10) Kassan, Anusha; Domene, José F.; Wada, Kaori; Bedi, Robinder P.
Selected Proceedings From The Canadian Counselling Psychology Conference 2018: Advocating For Ourselves, Advocating For Our Communities; Canadian Counselling Psychology Into the Next Decade and Beyond
Embargo
Shifting Landscape of College Mental Health: An Exploration of Medicalization, Etiological Belief of Depression, and Help-Seeking among College Students
(2024-01-25) Qiao, Qingqi Thomas; Wada, Kaori; Jin, Ling; Drefs, Michelle; Szeto, Andrew
In recent years, college mental health has emerged as a contentious issue. Marked by a consistently high prevalence of mental illness among students and the escalating demand for services, many reports have suggested that college mental health is in crisis. Despite increased efforts to support students, there is little evidence suggesting that the mental health crisis in college campuses is abating. To understand the current landscape of college mental health, we conducted two studies. The first study was a critical review that delineates the process of medicalization and its effect on college mental health crises. We employed the framework of psychiatrization (Beeker et al., 2021) to conceptually unpack the dynamics between top agents (service providers, administrators, and programs) and bottom agents (students) and investigated their roles in the medicalization of college mental health. Our findings suggested that the active participation of both top and bottom agents has created a medicalizing looping effect, reinforcing the college mental health crisis. Our discussion centred on the need to initiate a critical dialogue in such environments. The second study examined how students’ etiological beliefs about depression influence their treatment perceptions and help-seeking intentions. Using an online survey, we collected responses from 201 students from Canada and the USA regarding their etiological beliefs, perceptions about antidepressants and counselling, and help-seeking intentions. The hierarchical regression analyses showed that students who endorsed biological explanations of depression were more likely to see the benefits of antidepressants and less likely to see the risks. Students endorsing psychosocial explanations of depression were more likely to seek help for their suicidal thoughts. Moreover, male students were less likely to see the benefits of antidepressants and more likely to see the risks of counselling than their female counterparts. Students with more depression symptoms were more likely to view counselling as risky and less likely to engage in help-seeking for both emotional problems and suicidal thoughts. Our discussion focused on ways to tailor treatment programs to promote help-seeking in depression. Finally, we discussed ways to improve college counselling and support the mental health needs of college students.
Open Access
“The Challenge Led to Healing”: Survivors’ Experiences of Emotional Distress in a Breast Cancer Recovery Group
(2018-04-25) McCowan, Michelle Elizabeth; Robertson, Sharon E.; Wada, Kaori; Moules, Nancy Jean
As the number of women living beyond breast cancer continues to grow, the issue of emotional distress during survivorship has become increasingly salient. Many breast cancer survivors, distressed or not, choose to seek post-treatment support through group programs. Nonetheless, there has been a startling lack of research into participants’ experiences within these survivorship groups. In this study, I conducted semi-structured interviews with five breast cancer survivors who felt distressed during their participation in a cancer recovery group program. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) of participants’ experiences resulted in three overarching themes: (a) Contextual Challenges and Distress, (b) Group-Related Challenges and Distress, and (c) Coping and Healing. I discuss these findings within the context of relevant literature and present implications for group facilitators, care providers, and researchers in psychosocial oncology.
Open Access
The Dichotomous Portrayal of What is Written & What is Said: An Exploration into the Diverse Lives of Autistic Women and Femme Individuals
(2024-05-24) Coombs, Emily; Maroney, Meredith Rose; Wada, Kaori; Brown, Heather M.; McMorris, Carly; Santinele Martino, Alan
Existing research suggests that Autistic people are more likely than non-Autistic people to self-identify as sexually or gender diverse or as being on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Moreover, research suggests that Autistic women, girls and transfeminine individuals are more likely than Autistic men and boys to identify as non-heterosexual and gender diverse. This thesis comprises two manuscripts that both focus on Autistic gender and sexuality. Manuscript 1 uses femme theory to critique the literature on the sexual and gender experiences of Autistic women and gender diverse individuals, exploring the intersection of gender norms and feminine Autistic experiences. Through critical content analysis of articles from 2019 to 2022, researchers found that identity-first language was common compared to a limited use of person-first language. Themes included inadequate examination of femininity, limitations in discussing gender diversity, and recognition of its intersectionality with other forms of oppression. The study emphasizes the importance of inclusive language, breaking gender stereotypes, and considering intersectionality. Future research should broaden its scope and incorporate diverse perspectives to represent the strengths and resilience of Autistic women and feminine individuals. Manuscript 2 explores the intersectionality of Autistic women within LGBTQ+ communities, aiming to understand how their identities and well-being intersect through femme theory. Conducting semi-structured interviews with 17 diverse participants, the study found that Autistic women in the LGBTQ+ spectrum often form micro-groups based on shared identities, such as autism, providing crucial support. Participants emphasized the interconnectedness of their identities, with varying perspectives on femininity. The research highlights the need to address disparities in diagnoses and support for Autistic women, particularly those in LGBTQ+ communities, and suggests expanding diagnostic criteria to consider gender and sexual diversity. This study fills a gap in the literature by intentionally focusing on intersectionality within the Autistic community, shedding light on systemic challenges and shared identities' strengths. The combined findings of these manuscripts reinforce the need for a nuanced conversation about gender identity, that there exists a large overlap of those who identify as feminine, Autistic and LGBTQ+ and highlight the importance of considering intersectionality in discussions of identity and diversity. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
Open Access
The loss of Asperger Syndrome: An exploration of its effects on self-identity
(2017) Huynh, Stephany; McCrimmon, Adam; Strong, Tom; Schwartz, Kelly; Wada, Kaori
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), Asperger Syndrome (AS) has been eliminated and integrated into a new Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnostic framework. The loss of AS has social implications for people who self-identify and derive personal meaning from their diagnosis. The current study explored the opinions of adults with AS regarding the identity terms related to the changing classification of ASD. A qualitative approach was adopted whereby 12 participants each completed a semi-structured interview that was transcribed and analyzed via Thematic Analysis. The data revealed six themes: 1) Derived Meaning, 2) Knowledge and Understanding, 3) Perceptions and labels, 4) Social Identity, 5) Opinions and Reactions to ASD, and 6) Barriers to Funding and Service Provision. Overall, the results from the current study have practical utility for the AS community, families, and professionals, and will form the basis of future research.
Open Access
The Role of School Psychologists in Supporting Parentally Bereaved Children
(2024-08-15) Khatkar, Jasmeet Kaur; Drefs, Michelle Arlene; Hicks, Kelly Ryan; Wada, Kaori
A small proportion of children and youth undergo grief over losing a parent, sibling, or another family member. Although parentally bereaved children comprise a low-incident, vulnerable population, they are at risk for developing mental health issues. Given that students spend most of their time in school environments, it is crucial for educational institutions to have mechanisms in place to provide ongoing individual support for bereaved students. School psychologists are well-positioned to offer direct services and consultation tailored to the needs of bereaved students; however, there is limited literature exploring the current level of involvement and training of school psychologists in supporting parentally bereaved children. The purpose of this study is to clarify school psychologists' role and perspectives on supporting parentally bereaved children at the school level. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The following six global themes were identified: (a) what does grief look like, (b) perceived supports and services that are necessary for grieving children, (c) addressing grief in schools: practices, policies, and responses, (d) school psychologists serve as a valuable asset for school communities, (e) barriers to implementation of services and supports, and (f) lifelong learning: continuing to develop and expand knowledge. This study explored the challenges and barriers that school psychologists face in supporting parentally bereaved children and aimed to identify existing strategies and resources that are effective in meeting the needs of bereaved students in school settings.